George Bush's Confession: False Contrition at its Worst

Some acts are not made right by an apology. "Sorry" becomes inadequate past a certain point of misbehavior and irresponsibility. A vile philosophy held for one's entire adult life cannot be dismissed as a mistake to be corrected with a quick mea culpa. Eight years of hell cannot be washed away with a few insincere words of regret.

George Bush pleads with us to remember him as a politician who went into politics with one set of values and who "came out with the same set of values." Yes, George, we will remember you, exactly as you wish, as a president who came in and left with his values intact. Unfortunately for the citizens of this great country, and for peoples of the world, your values are a nightmare. Steadfast adherence to an immoral worldview is no virtue.

As you wish, we will remember you for your values as clearly revealed in the following actions:

• Supporting torture

• Suspending habeas corpus

• Arresting and holding American citizens with no charge and no access to counsel

• Illegal wiretapping and spying on American citizens

• Politicizing the Justice Department in a way that would make Nixon shudder

• Firing 9 federal prosecutors who refused to investigate bogus election fraud scams

• Exposing the name of an active CIA agent, a treasonous act

• Crumbling the wall separating church and state

• Creating the biggest debts and deficits in our nation's history

• Pushing deregulation, leading to an implosion on Wall Street, and a recession

• Lying about and then incompetently executing two wars

• Sending soldiers to war with inadequate equipment

• Neglecting soldiers returning from war, exemplified by the filth of Walter Reed

• Ignoring genocide in Darfur

• Creating kangaroo courts that make a mockery of justice

• Dismantling the federal government's scientific advisory structure

• Politicizing the FDA, using religion to trump epidemiology and hard science

• Stifling biomedical research with a ban on stem cell research

• Failing to respond to Katrina

• Ignoring climate change

• Disparaging any concern for the loss of tropical forests and biological diversity

• Gutting the endangered species act

• Opening national forests to mining, drilling and intense logging

• Reducing air and water pollution standards

• Failing to support renewable energy, extending our dependence of foreign oil

George, by no means is this list anywhere near comprehensive. But the point is clear: you trampled our civil rights, debased our moral values with torture and endangered the planet. History will indeed judge you. In spite of your delusional fantasy, you are no Harry Truman. If you wish to seek historical precedent, look in the mirror and see the face of Herbert Hoover.

Your values, to which you so proudly cling, represent the worst of humanity. Your values, and the rot and decay of your moral core, have brought a proud nation to its knees, and debased us before the world.

Yes, George, we will remember you, as you wish, as a person "who kept his values."

Comments

[humble liberty]

He definitely should have been impeached, he swore an oath and broke it many times, martyr or not. I agree with our founding fathers but if they were defeated the British indeed had the right to execute them, as was law. This whole situation sets an awful standard.

If he ran a business like this with scrupulous shareholders and board members he would be terminated from his job and prosecuted.

[Jeff Schweitzer - Huffpost Blogger]

You might be right, but there is nothing we can do about impeachment now. What we can do, though, is make sure that the world never forgets the horrors of his administration. We have to make sure the Republicans do not successfully whitewash or obscure or rewrite the realities and atrocities of the past 8 years.

[Jeff Schweitzer - Huffpost Blogger]

George Bush is guilty of many impeachable offenses, including illegal wire tapping, lying about that wire tapping (compared to Clinton's offense of lying about sex), condoning torture, then lying about condoning torture, and exposing the name of an active CIA agent to name a few. But I think we were right not to impeach him, as satisfying as that would be, and as deserving of such action as he is. We would have made him a martyr to the right; this way, by letting him stay in office, he dug his own grave, and history will relegate him as a uniquely disastrous president, standing alone as the biggest loser. The nightmare is almost over; we need to move on to a new period of enlightenment.

[kailuatan]

The question that everyone need to really ask........ "After" George Bush leave office on Jan 21st, how many days, weeks or months before he received his first payoff for being a crooked. I happen to think that he sold this country to gain his own greed. Remember Ronald Regan after he left office, his first outside US was in Japan that got him Millions in payment and they call it speech payment.

As a Democrat Nancy Pelosi should should be remove from office just for being a whimp and not impeach George Bush.

[diversityisNormal]

I have to agree re: Nancy Pelosi. SHE is the reason the impeachment bill did not go forward. One really has to ask "why?". She has clearly makes an effort to block anything Republican, even if it happens to be something good or right! I am expecting our congress to hold the Executive branch accountable and yet they continue to demonstrate their own lack of will. Congress sure didn't have any trouble wasting tax dollars to impeach Bill Clinton and he didn't even abuse the Executive powers, he just let himself make a bad moral decision with a woman who did the same!
Pelosi is a sad example of a woman using old school politics to take care of her own career. She really could have used this unique opportunity to lead the House toward change and empowerment. Instead, it just looks like more politics as usual.